Waukesha alderman covers a lot of ground with town-hall meetings

WAUKESHA - Alderman Aaron Perry thought he would try something "fun" for his fourth town hall meeting: Bringing as many levels of government together as possible.

The 12th district alderman will lead a multi-topic, multi-government gathering from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17, at Citizens Bank, 2109 Corporate Drive, Waukesha.

Among the scheduled speakers and guests for the meeting are Waukesha County Board President Paul Decker, former Mayor and current County Board Supervisor Larry Nelson, School Board member Amanda Medina-Roddy, Prairie Elementary School Principal Dennis Griffin, City Administrator Kevin Lahner, and Waukesha County Circuit Court judge candidate Laura Lau.

Perry also sent invitations out to Gov. Scott Walker, who did not respond, and District 97 State Rep. Scott Allen and District 33 State Sen. Chris Kapenga, who will be in session that day, but may make an appearance if their schedule allows.

"It's kind of a game-time decision if they are able to come," Perry said. "They said that if they can make it, they will, and I told them it's an open invitation."

The Waukesha alderman has sponsored several previous town hall meetings, all with varying formats, including a simple roundtable discussion featuring Perry and 10 people who attended.

"For this one, I thought it would be a fun opportunity, after the holidays, to get as many levels of governments represented as possible," Perry said. "As many people as could make it would be great."

The speakers have been told they can talk about any topic they want, with a eye toward community-relevant points.

Given the two-hour timeframe, he said the session will try to limit discussion to 10 to 20 minutes on any topic — that includes the Frame Park baseball stadium proposal, which Perry acknowledged is a potentially explosive topic. Representatives of Big Top Baseball, the group interested in the stadium development, have been invited, as well.

"It'll be a pretty packed two hours," he said. "Unfortunately, we can't get into a 40-minute back-and-forth on one particular topic."